The Forsyte Saga - Complete eBook

Consciousness came again with noticing that the river
had no water in it—­someone was speaking
too. Want anything? No. What could
one want? Too weak to want—­only to
hear his watch strike....

Holly! She wouldn’t bowl properly.
Oh! Pitch them up! Not sneaks!...
‘Back her, Two and Bow!’ He was Two!...
Consciousness came once more with a sense of the
violet dusk outside, and a rising blood-red crescent
moon. His eyes rested on it fascinated; in the
long minutes of brain-nothingness it went moving up
and up....

CHAPTER V

SOAMES ACTS

A sealed letter in the handwriting of Mr. Polteed
remained unopened in Soames’ pocket throughout
two hours of sustained attention to the affairs of
the ‘New Colliery Company,’ which, declining
almost from the moment of old Jolyon’s retirement
from the Chairmanship, had lately run down so fast
that there was now nothing for it but a ‘winding-up.’
He took the letter out to lunch at his City Club,
sacred to him for the meals he had eaten there with
his father in the early seventies, when James used
to like him to come and see for himself the nature
of his future life.

Here in a remote corner before a plate of roast mutton
and mashed potato, he read:

“Dearsir,

“In accordance with your suggestion we have
duly taken the matter up at the other end with gratifying
results. Observation of 47 has enabled us to
locate 17 at the Green Hotel, Richmond. The two
have been observed to meet daily during the past week
in Richmond Park. Nothing absolutely crucial
has so far been notified. But in conjunction
with what we had from Paris at the beginning of the
year, I am confident we could now satisfy the Court.
We shall, of course, continue to watch the matter
until we hear from you.

“Very faithfully yours,
“ClaudPolteed.”

Soames read it through twice and beckoned to the waiter:

“Take this away; it’s cold.”

“Shall I bring you some more, sir?”

“No. Get me some coffee in the other room.”

And, paying for what he had not eaten, he went out,
passing two acquaintances without sign of recognition.

‘Satisfy the Court!’ he thought, sitting
at a little round marble table with the coffee before
him. That fellow Jolyon! He poured out
his coffee, sweetened and drank it. He would
disgrace him in the eyes of his own children!
And rising, with that resolution hot within him, he
found for the first time the inconvenience of being
his own solicitor. He could not treat this scandalous
matter in his own office. He must commit the
soul of his private dignity to a stranger, some other